Lost in limbo
by Leanna68
Summary: one of the ship that was to escort the flag ship from the dying planet of thundera was thought lost to a mutant attack how ever new information was found about its survival and possible new refugees. just a note this is a whole new story from my other ones
1. Chapter 1

Lost in limbo

Chapter 1

By lady Leanna

Stars twinkled brightly in the dark sky, the moon hid behind a stray cloud casting an eerie shadow on the landscape below all life on Thundera accept those who thrived in the dark, settled down for their nightly slumber. Even the ThunderCats were readying themselves for a night rest. Tygra sat in the control room waiting for one of the night guards to come so he could take his leave and go to bed.

The tiger checked the time and stretched his muscles; his shift would end in a few minutes. just as the doors to the control room opened the communication console beeped, "figures," the tiger grumbled and pushed the com, "Cat's Lair, Tygra here".

Mandora's face filled the screen "Tygra, sorry for calling at this late hour, but I have some information that Lord Lion-O should be aware of"

Tygra sat forward in his chair "relating to?" the tiger asked.

"One of our scouts came across a distress signal from a planet twenty parsecs away from Thundera" Mandora said.

"And?" the tiger asked

"This is where is becomes strange, the signal was sent 15 years ago" Mandora answered, "From one of the original Thunderian ships that left during your planets destruction"

Tygra's eyes widened a bit, it would make sense, but they had thought all surviving ships were accounted for and all survivors were now back home on Thundera. "but if it was sent that long ago, how do you know anyone is still alive?"

"The signal was a recording, I will send it through to you and a full report of what we discovered" Mandora said, "I leave this matter in your hands now ThunderCats and if you require further assistance do not hesitate to contact us, Mandora out"

"But" Tygra said but before he had the chance to speak further the connection went black. Tygra just shook his head and waited for the report to finish downloading to the lairs computer. Once done Tygra sat and started to read.

The more he read the more awake he became; "by thundera" he exclaimed and woke up the other ThunderCats.

Tygra ran past the guard that was taking his place, the guard didn't even get a chance to greet the tiger as he shot out the door in a orange and white blur.

Tygra was met in the hallway by a very sleepy lion "sorry to wake you but this couldn't wait until morning "Tygra apologized as they entered the council chamber.

The tiger walked over and pulled the report up on the main computer screen for everyone to see, "Mandora contacted me a few minutes ago, apparently one of their scouts picked up a signal that was sent little over 15 years ago from one of our convoy ship "

"Wait "Cheetara replied, "we lost all our convoy ships when the mutants attack trying to get to the flag ship"

"Or so we thought "Tygra said and click a button on the table, a vice recording started to play.

"this is Captain Brya of the Thunderian ship, cougra1, we lost contact with the flag ship, all the other ships in the convoy have all but been destroyed, our defense systems are down, weapons useless, we are drifting in space away from the flagship, may Jaga and the eye of thundera protect them and see them safe "Tygra paused the recording.

"Damn it." Panthro growled "we should have checked".

"You and I both know were didn't have time. We were surrounded and Jaga knew we had to get to safety" Tygra said.

"ok so if the signal was sent that long ago how do we know they even made it to a planet and are still alive? " Lion-O said.

"Because of this, "Tygra said and pressed the button again.

"Ships scans shows us a suitable planet we could land on and sustain ourselves until help arrives, only problem is only some of our suspension capsules are functioning and we don't want to take the chance of the ones that are left to malfunction and kill whoever is inside, if we are lucky and the eye of thundera is on our side we can make it to the planet in 6 years, we should have enough food and supplies for our crew of fifty"

"So is there more? " Cheetara asked,

"No that was it" Tygra answered "but we have the coordinates of the planet in question and we could go and check it out ourselves "

"Agreed "Lion-O nodded, "Panthro have the feline fueled and ready, we will leave at first light"

"On it" the panther said and got up from his seat and headed to the hanger.


	2. Chapter 2

Lost in limbo

Chapter 2

True to his word the feline was ready to take flight at first light, Tygra in the co-pilot seat, with Panthro at the helm, Cheetara sitting at the back calling off the preflight checks as Lion-O made sure everything was secure and the area was all clear for takeoff.

Once in the air the ThunderCats settled in for the long flight, even with the new engines it would take a couple days to reach their destination.

"You know if we find them all alive we will have to call for help to bring them back home, "Tygra said.

"That's if they want to return" Cheetara replied from the middle seat. "I mean it has been a long time, maybe they have set up a new home like we had done on third earth, with over fifty people they may have settled and started families of their own"

"Well," Tygra said, "all we can do is go and see for ourselves and cheek out the situation, and give them the option to return home to thundera if they wish"

"I know I was happy when thundera reformed and I couldn't wait to get back home" Panthro added, "so I can't see why they wouldn't want to come home".

Lion-O came up and sat down," I managed to find the crew manifest of that ship, they not only had crew but some civilians, seems they were one of the last ships to lift off just before we did and manage to take as many civilians as they could possibly carry"

Tygra turned his head," Panthro? What is it?" seeing an odd look on the panthers face.

Panthro just shook his head,"nothing, just thinking how many that didn't make it off thundera".

Tygra's face turned somber, they had lost loved ones, friends, comrades that day. Panthro was one of his oldest and closest friends. He could see there was more to the panther's expression then he was letting on or willing to speak of. Not that he blamed him; it was a painful memory, one they had many years to get over and heal from. But it was one they didn't speak of often.

Even Cheetara noticed and she didn't need her sixth sense to pick up that something wasn't quite right, but she stayed quiet, there would be plenty of time to find out it would be a long trip, she would wait for the right time to approach the panther.

Later when everyone but Panthro was resting, Cheetara went up to the flight deck to relive the panther, "Go get some sleep I'll take over until Lion-O or Tygra wake "

"Nah, I'm fine for a few more hours "Panthro replied glancing at the cheetah.

"Suit yourself" Cheetara said with a slight shrug of her shoulders and plopped down in the empty co-pilot chair. She opened up the file she had in her hand and began reading.

Panthro remained silent and kept his gaze out the front window watching the stars as they glided by.

"You seem a bit distracted since we left thundera" Cheetara said breaking the silence.

"Maybe a bit of guilt" Panthro admitted, "We left them behind"

"We had our orders. We had to protect Lion-O and the eye, we really had no choice" Cheetara said, "but there is more isn't there?" she asked.

"No" Panthro said flatly.

"No? "Cheetara questioned, "So we just go and evaluate the situation and then what?"

"Give them the option of returning home" Panthro answered.

"Have you even looked at the list of the ship's crew and passengers?" Cheetara asked.

"what does it matter we don't even know if any of them survived the trip or are still alive, for all we know we may be heading to a grave yard " Panthro said still staring straight ahead.

Cheetara just looked at him "you really have your guard up don't you?"

Panthro just looked at her and scowled.

"Don't give me that look, that look don't scare me panther, you may as well come clean because in a little over twelve hours we will find out anyway " Cheetara said with a slight smile

"It's been over fifteen years, no good digging up the past that has taken so long to burry" the panther said stubbornly.

Cheetara knew when the panther got in one of is moods it would be like pulling teeth to get anything out of him, what she said next gave her the answer she was looking for. "She was someone special wasn't she?"

The look on the panther face was hard as a rock but it was his eyes that betrayed him. He suddenly stood, "the watch is yours," he said before he escaped below deck.

Cheetara knew she struck a nerve, she went back reading the list on the papers she had on her lap, Tygra came up a few minutes later, Cheetara looked up at the orange tiger, "think this will be a long interesting trip"

"What makes you say that? " Tygra asked.

"Our dear panther is in a mood"

"I noticed that since we got the news about that missing ship" Tygra said as he sat in the pilot chair.

"So do you have any idea what's wrong? "Cheetara asked.

"You know Panthro, he has always kept things pretty much to himself" Tygra answered. "And given who we are there's probably isn't much to tell, we had no time for anything but our job and our job didn't allow for a personal life back then"

"I have the feeling that Panthro is hiding something" Cheetara said, "It was the look in his eyes"

"Think its best just to leave him alone," Tygra said.

Cheetara's head came up, "you know don't you?"

"I gave my word as a thundercat I wouldn't say one word" Tygra answered.


	3. Chapter 3

Lost in limbo

Chapter 3

As the feline got closer to its destination, Tygra received more information about the planet they were heading to, it was known and Amox5, its climates went from one extreme to another, at its northern and southern poles was extreme cold, and at its middle dry hot wastelands, Intel reports said the planets air was breathable however due to the climates it would be hard to grow crops as there was little fresh water and only tiny oceans to support any marine life. That and the added report of the damage the ship had taken, Tygra began to doubt their chances of survival even if they did manage to reach the planet and land intact, he doubted they would have enough supplies for fifty people to last over fifteen years .

Tygra had the long range scanners set to max, looking for any type of signal be it beacon or communication signal or any type of marker the injure ship may have set out along its course, interstellar traffic wasn't heavy in this sector for a good reason, there wasn't many inhalable planets . With no life there could be no trading posts or outposts accept for a few tiny mining operations that were more or less handled by robotics and even those would only need to be maintained every few years. Of all places to go this was not a very good place to pick, but since they really had no other choice it was better than floating around in dead space waiting to perish.

Tygra leaned forward in his seat and sent out an old Thunderian signal one they use to use on old thundera and waited again for any response.

"Anything?" Lion-O asked coming up from the lower deck.

"Nothing so far" Tygra answered,"and we should be getting something by now"

As if on cue a tiny ping sounded over the speakers, "Beacon" Tygra smiled and adjusted the controls, "One of ours alright"

"Pulling it in" Lion-O said sending out a grappling line to grab the beacon and bring it on board.

Once on board they were able to confirm it came from the ship Cougra1, but this one was damaged and would be near impossible to recover any recordings. However they were on mission and there for determination would prevail, the beacon was given to the one person who would be the only one who could recover anything.

Within an hour Panthro pulled the beacon apart and had the recorder in his hand, like a skilled surgeon he wired the delicate recorder to the feliner's computer system , " There is no sound but we have bits of video " Panthro said pressing the button ,bringing the screen to life.

The screen flickered and showed the Cougra1 Bridge, her captain giving orders and crew in the back ground moving around, scurrying about trying to fix the damage done. As they watched Panthro hit a button freezing the video, he touched another button to zoom in on something in the background.

His eyes widened a bit as he stared at the screen, a woman stood side too in the background, a tall dark haired woman , her features could hardly be seen, but there was no mistaking this woman , he knew her. He knew that stance, the tilt of her head. Relief washed over him, he knew she at least survived the planets destruction. Now the question was, was she still alive?

"Friend of yours?" Lion-O asked seeing the look on the panthers face.

"Yes, you could say that" Panthro nodded, "a fellow martial arts student, I knew a long time ago"

"She's pretty," the lion teased, the panther looked at him and scowled.

"Oh stop being such a grump" Lion-O chuckled.

Tygra interrupted the soon to be banter from the panther "we are within transmission range"

"Trying standard hail" Panthro said flipping the switch.

They sat and waited but the radio remained silent, Panthro tried sending a signal in old Thunderian , but the radio made no sound. "So now what?" Lion-O asked.

"Now we wait until we are in range of the planet and start scanning for wreckage, they may have crash landed and were unable to salvage their communication system" Tygra answered.

"Get Cheetara up here, we will need everyone manning their stations for this" Panthro replied and pushed the engines just a bit harder to get to the planet.

Lion-O nodded and went below to fetch the cheetah.


	4. Chapter 4

Lost in limbo

Chapter 4

The feliner came within scanning distance of the planet Amox5, "All scanners at max" Tygra announced, they were scanning for not only the ship, but life forms as well in case there wasn't much left of the ship. After nearly twenty minutes was no sign of the ship or any life on the planet.

"It's like looking for a certain grain of sand in a desert" Lion-O commented as the tension the air grew.

"Adjusting scans " Panthro replied then started fine tuning the scanners.

After a few minutes of silence Cheetara spoke up" Wait, I have something, sector 3 grid 25" the rest of the ThunderCats adjusted their scans to the area.

Tygra looked at the panther "what do you think?"

Panthro magnified the area in question, "right size and density. Has to be them"

Tygra took over the scan as Panthro piloted the ship closer to the planet, "Looks like the ship is in one piece, however," The tiger paused as he brought up picture from the surrounding area, "its half buried by sand"

"Well least the ships landing fared better than we did" Panthro said referring to their crash landing on third earth all those years ago. "Not sure how operational it will be being half way under sand all these years, wouldn't take much for sand to get in and corrode the electrical and computer systems"

"Panthro I did a scan of the surrounding area, looks like a cave system, with a small water supply, if they are alive they may be there" Cheetara said and fed the coordinates to the pilot computer.

"I want to check out the ship first" Panthro said as they entered the planet's atmosphere.

The feliner started to shake "rough ride" Tygra said trying to stabilize the ship and the panther concentrated on keeping them in one piece.

"We are flying half blind," Panthro said as the screens went dead.

"Some sort of magnetic interference, trying to compensate." Lion-O said from his console as he tried to bring the screens back to life.

As the feliner got closer to the ground they found themselves in the middle of a massive sand storm, "just can't catch a break," Panthro grumbled as he struggled with the controls, now they were completely blind with both screens and now zero visibility.

The feliner engines started to spit and sputter, "Oh come on," Panthro growled, "don't you dare do this to me now"

Tygra seen through the sand storm that they were coming up on the ground fast and hit the reverse thrusters. Keeping the feliner's nose up the ship landed with a slight thud.

"Everyone alright?" Panthro asked shutting down the engines.

"Yes," both Lion-O and Cheetara answered in unison.

"Not one of your better landings my friend" Tygra said with a slight smirk.

The panther grinned, "Were are in one piece so I say one of my best"

"Ok ThunderCats let's go see if we can find survivors" Lion-O said heading to the back of the feliner.

Despite the temperature outside being near the mid 130 the cats dressed in cloaks and protective face masks to shield them from the harsh blowing sand. Hand held scanners proved useless as the magnetic interference they experienced in the planet upper atmosphere also extended to the ground.

"This way," Cheetara yelled over the wind and lead the group to the downed Thunderian convoy ship.

Forcing open the door the four went inside, everything was pitch dark, taking out flashlights the first place they headed was the bridge.

Lion-O and Cheetara looked around as Panthro and Tygra went to the main controls, "Bah, no power," Panthro grumbled,

"I don't think anyone has been in here in a long time "Tygra said running his finger over the console leaving a trail in the thick build up of dust.

"Let's check out the rest of the ship, Cheetara and I will check the crew quarters, you and Tygra check out the cargo bay" Lion-O said. "we'll meet back here in twenty minutes"

Lion-O and Cheetara went room to room checking the crew quarters, but found each empty save for a few items. "Well we know they didn't leave in a hurry, everything has been packed up and taken" Cheetara said looking around, everything was covered in dust.

"And we know they haven't been here for a while, Snarf would have a fit if he seen all this dust" Lion-O replied as they finished searching the first and second crew decks.

On the way they checked the medical bay and it too was empty, everything had been packed up and moved , as the lion and cheetah left themed bay they met up with the panther and tiger, " Nothing in the cargo hold" Panthro said.

"Same as the crew quarters and med bay," Lion-O said.

"So now we find that cave" Tygra said.

The four went to go outside but froze when they seen a group of ten people standing before them cloaked and weapons pointing at them. "Not one more step" A male voice bellowed, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"We are here to help" Lion-O answered

"Who said we needed help!" another male replied.

"Just calm down," Tygra spoke up, "We had received word of this ship being in trouble and we came to see if there were any survivors"

"Well you are a bit late aren't you?"

"Well this place is far out of the way, look we wish to speak to Captain Brya" Tygra continued.

Two of the cloaked men turned to each other and one of them nodded. "First tell us who you are"

"I am Lion-O, lord of the ThunderCats" the lion said as he and the others removed their hoods and protective face masks, "this is, Tygra, Cheetara and Panthro"

The group of men dropped to one knee "My Lord" one spoke, "we had no idea"

"It's alright, we would have reacted the same way if we were in your position" Lion-O said calmly, "now are you the crew of this ship?"

"Part of the crew yes" The man said and removed his cloak and nodded to the others to follow suit. "I am captain Brya" he sid introducing himself. "I haven't seen you since you were a boy my lord and I would know you anywhere, you look so much like your father"

Lion-O bowed slightly, "thank you captain. My father was a great man"

Captain Brya note he spoke of his former king is the past tense. So he knew the old king didn't survive. "My lord we are but a small crew only thirty of us made it. Twenty men and ten women, we lost twenty of our people over the years due to these harsh conditions"

"well, worry no more, we have come to take you home if you wish" the lion said

"Home?"

"Yes Thundera reformed and we have rebuilt it, many have returned home"

"What about the others?" Panthro asked intruding his leader/

"They are back at the cave. We thought it safer after our power supply gave out. We will take you to meet the others"

The group departed the ship and stepped outside, the sand storm had finally calmed down enough so they could see which direction they were going. As they got close o the entrance of the cave, more people came out to greet them. They all went inside. As they went deeper into the cave system the ThunderCats noticed how warm and bright it was. What surprised them more was one part of the cave grew a lush field of crops, it was a type of bio-dome the crew had created so they could at least grow food.

"This is amazing" Tygra commented as they looked around.

"this was five years in the making" Brya answered, "we had to covert our laser and cut out about ten tons of rock to make enough room for a small crop farm, we planted seed we had on board"

"But our scans showed hardly any water" Tygra said.

"We tapped into a underground spring and made a irrigation system" Brya answered.

The ThunderCats attention was drawn to the sounds of giggling, they turned and seen a small group of young children of between the ages of six and three years of age. Lion-O turned back to the captain.

"Well, sometimes nature has its own way of popping up" Brya said with a slight chuckle. "but we are careful to control our population, it could lead to umm, problems down the road"

Lion-O gave Tygra a look.

"He means inbreeding," the tiger whispered," the males outnumber the females 2-1"

"ah got ya " Lion-O said with a nod.

"I am so sorry," a young woman said running into the room "these little rats got away from me again"

The group turned towards the young woman "It's ok Lethea, as you can see we have guests" Brya said.

Panthro looked at the young woman his jaw nearly dropped; she looked exactly like the woman he had known years ago, but it wasn't possible this one was way too young to be her. She couldn't have been more the twelve or thirteen. But she looked exactly like her. Same eyes same pitch black hair same nose.

"Please come and meet the others" Brya said and lead the ThunderCats to another part of the cave.


End file.
